Judge warns access problems ‘not fair’

Judges are threatening to pull the plug on the court’s video-link system unless lawyers get better access to see their clients in prison.

Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland gave the warning at a video-link session yesterday as another case had to be put off, adding to the court system’s daily ‘‘churn’’.

He made his comment as he considered a three-week remand for a case involving an alleged assault with an imitation firearm, with the defendant being held in custody, six weeks after his arrest.

‘‘It does need an improvement,’’ the judge said.

‘‘If that doesn’t occur, then some members of the judiciary including myself will stop using the AVL system. Something needs to concentrate the mind of the authorities, because it’s not fair.’’

Defence counsel Ruth Buddicom raised the issue at a video-link session where her client, George Nehad Said, 32, was on-screen in court for charges of unlawful possession of an imitation firearm, assault with a weapon, and unlawful possession of ammunition.

She said a remand was needed because she had received another batch of police paperwork and a DVD recording of an interview. She had been unable to see her client at the prison to discuss it with him and show him the recording.

She planned to raise her concerns with the executive judge in the District Court, and in the High Court, she said.

There were seven interview rooms available at the prison, between 9am and 3pm, and they were also being booked by several other services who needed to see inmates. There were also difficulties when inmates needed to be shown video footage, to ensure the prison had computers available.

She realised the prison was being hampered by the number of interviews, and the high prison muster, she said.

Judge Garland said he believed it was a lack of facilities and resources that contributed to the problem.

Judge Garland said lawyers told him ‘‘all too often’’ they couldn’t access their clients to take instruction and that was slowing down the whole process.

‘‘The Criminal Procedures Act was intended to introduce a much more efficient system to speed the process up,’’ he said. ‘‘The use of AVL in courts was to improve our efficiency and speed things up but we seem to be hitting a bottle-neck at the prison.’’

He accepted with the Said case, there needed to be another remand in custody for another case review hearing on September 18, so that Buddicom could see him at the prison and take further instructions.